Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDSA) is said to be divesting its Orion oil sands project in Canada, some six years after buying it for $2.4 billion, during the most recent Canadian energy boom. An observer remarked that “They are probably getting rid of it because it’s such a small part of the portfolio” – maybe $200 million.

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) and Noble Corporation (NYSE:NE) agree to resolve their legal dispute, which would have been the first case originating with the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The crux of the matter involved APC’s unilateral termination of a drilling rig lease, arguing that the spill ‘qualified as an act of God’ which allowed the end of the lease. For its part Noble was seeking up to $102 million in damages for the lost payments, and contended that the subsequent ban on drilling did not qualify as a ‘force majeure’, and that the rig could still have been used for other purposes.

Shares of North American Energy Partners (NYSE:NOA) add more than 25 percent on Tuesday, followng the news that former Helix Energy Solutions head Martin Ferron was named on Monday as its new CEO, replacing the retiring Rod Ruston.

Compliance with credit line covenants will require Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK) to come up with a minimum of $7 billion through asset sales in 2012 and another $2 billion in 2013, Jefferies calculates. To accomplish that feat, the company might be forced to sell some of its prized assets in undeveloped oil shale fields located in Ohio and south Texas, as current market conditions render CHK’s plan to divest its oilfield services subsidiary “unlikely”.